Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Tellabs Inc. agreed to be acquired
by Marlin Equity Partners in a deal valued at about $891
million, letting the unprofitable phone-equipment maker regroup
as a private company.

The board approved the transaction after more than 30
potential buyers were contacted, Naperville, Illinois-based
Tellabs said today in a statement. The offer of $2.45 a share is
4.3 percent higher than Tellabs’s closing price on Oct. 18, the
most recent trading day.

Tellabs has posted 11 straight money-losing quarters as the
company shifts from older phone-network switches to more popular
equipment for wireless systems. It suffered a dual blow last
year when Chief Executive Officer Rob Pullen died of cancer and
Chairman Mike Birck announced he would step down from the board
after being diagnosed with leukemia.

“This transaction will deliver to Tellabs stockholders
certainty of value and liquidity, immediately upon closing,”
Vince Tobkin, the company’s current chairman, said in the
statement.

Tellabs shares rose 4.7 percent to $2.46 at the close in
New York. The stock has climbed 7.9 percent this year.

Birck, Tellabs’s co-founder, remains the company’s second-largest stockholder and has told the company that he supports
the transaction, according to the statement. Goldman Sachs Group
Inc. advised Tellabs on the deal, while Credit Suisse Group AG
and Evercore Partners Inc. were the financial advisers to Marlin
Equity.

“We view Tellabs’s business as an ideal opportunity to
capitalize on the growth in the telecom network equipment
sector,” Nick Kaiser, a partner at Los Angeles-based Marlin,
said in a statement.